Two activist hedge fund firms join efforts and plan new strategy

Glenn W. Welling Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: - Two activist hedge fund firms, a new one based in California and another head-quartered in London, announced today they had formed a new partnership. They will join marketing efforts and together launch a global constructive activist strategy. They are Engaged Capital (EC) and Governance for Owners (GO).

The two firms’ investment philosophies are aligned: their funds want to generate superior returns by investing in under-valued, small and mid-cap ($500m–$8bn), publicly listed companies and work to catalyse change in those companies to create shareholder value. Like most activist funds, they take concentrated, strategic ownership positions and then engage the management and board of directors in an attempt to influence decisions that are meant to raise the companies’ value for shareholders.

According to GO, "investment strategies like those of EC and GO, that hold managements and boards accountable to shareholders, have the potential to generate sustainable alpha. The EC and GO partnership brings together teams with best of breed capabilities from the US, Europe and Asia. EC invests in North American companies while GO invests in both European and Japanese equities and has additional capabilities in South East Asia and Australia. Together, EC and GO should be well positioned to offer investors regional or global activist investment approaches that have the potential to help them meet their portfolio objectives."